Can't reinstall Windows XP Pro!

@android (894)
September 8, 2008 6:19pm CST
I just bought a desktop PC with an 80GB Maxtor hard drive. Everything was working fine except that it was full of the old users files so I tried to reinstall Windows. However, when it got to the formatting stage it kept getting stuck at 2%. After trying time and time again it now gets to 50% but still freezes up. Anyone got any ideas on how to fix this problem?
1 person likes this
4 responses
krkchn
@krkchn (160)
• Philippines
9 Sep 08
Try formatting it in another computer. Failing too much during formats could cause your harddrive to permanently cease.
2 people like this
ferdzNK
@ferdzNK (3211)
• Philippines
9 Sep 08
Krkchn has a point, do a full drive format on the computer that sees/detected it then install it back to your desktop and do the WinXP install without the formatting. Sometimes it just in the cable contacts that is causing these problem, If you have a new IDE cable replace it and do contact cleaning. good luck.
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android
@android (894)
•
9 Sep 08
I tried that but to no avail. I have now resorted to taking one of the hard drives out of my other PC and installing Windows on that instead so I'm only left with 20GB in my old PC now! Anyway, at least I had enough spare parts to get it going!
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ferdzNK
@ferdzNK (3211)
• Philippines
9 Sep 08
Did you check your BIOS, set the drive to autodetect, maybe its configured manually to a different size drive.
android
@android (894)
•
9 Sep 08
Yep, I changed it to auto-detect, it picks it up as an IDE drive with a capacity of 76.33MB but still gets stuck on the format, I think there may be some sectors that are too damaged to be re-written.
superrocker
@superrocker (402)
• India
9 Sep 08
it may due to errors in sectors or some other internal hard disk errors.so it is better is consult a technician.
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android
@android (894)
•
9 Sep 08
I have tried checking it for errors but because the capacity shows up in Windows as 0 bytes the error checking facility just ends straight away, I think it may be too damaged to be able to be formatted.
superrocker
@superrocker (402)
• India
9 Sep 08
i think there may some error in the sectors .so use it in athor computer and check for hard drive errors.or you may better to consult a technician.